#zero parallax

In this post, I want to explore the creative thought process behind the prologue to my multi-crossover fanfiction Zero Parallax, published on Archive of Our Own (AO3). You can find the work here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/60441889/chapters/196526651

I wrote this prologue in early December 2025 as a way to ease new readers into the story from a different angle. Rather than dropping them directly into the narrative, I wanted to provide contextual framing—much like the historical excerpts scattered throughout Frank Herbert’s Dune. That approach felt especially important for a multi-crossover setting, where unfamiliar worlds and concepts can quickly become overwhelming.

Originally, this text was meant to be the story’s summary. However, AO3’s character limit forced me to heavily condense it. Instead of losing what I felt was important tone and context, I decided to expand the summary into a full prologue, giving the ideas room to breathe.

As I was writing, the prose began to resemble the kind of informational plaques you might find in a history museum. I leaned into that feeling and formalized it as an in-universe document housed in the Galactic Museum of History, specifically within the Covenant War Wing. The text is attributed to Professor Khathor Kas’roh, a batarian and Chair of Interstellar Conflict Studies.

Making the author a batarian was a deliberate choice. I wanted a perspective that felt distinct and slightly removed from the viewpoints readers might expect, rather than defaulting to a more familiar Mass Effect species like a turian. That distance allowed the prologue to feel more analytical, reflective, and grounded in historical hindsight—setting the tone for the larger story to come.

Citadel Standard Calendar: This is the Asari and the Citadel's standard calendar dating system. This is to make the universe feel bigger instead of just humans + aliens on top. I also adjusted the timeline to be more akin to Halo to help this.

The calculation is simple enough: subtract 2000 from the AD (human) calendar, then divide by 1.2 (which is the rotation of Thessia compared to Earth) .